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Merit Rewards
Overview Issue 13 gave us Merit Rewards, replacing the random recipe option at the end of Task Forces, Strike Forces, and Trials. Reward Merits are also given at the end of every Story Arc, whether it is major or minor, and by killing at least some Giant Monsters. Each activity has had a different reward amount assigned to it, based on datamined time required to complete it. Merit rewards can be turned in for recipes, enhancements, salvage, badges, and more. In the February 10 update from Synapse, the design philosophy was covered: :Task Forces give an average of 1 merit every 3 minutes of average time (20 merits an hour), Trials give an average of 1 merit every 2.5 minutes (24 merits an hour), and Story Arcs give an average of 1 merit every 7.5 minutes (8 merits an hour). The reason for this major difference is due to the considerable time and effort Task/Strike Forces can take to set up and complete, so naturally these tasks grant a much greater reward. On February 10, 2009, how many merits per minute each activity is awarded with was altered. Task Forces were previously 12 merits per hour, Trials were 13-14 per hour, and Story Arcs were 4-5 per hour. Additionally, datamining was performed to adjust each activity's specific awarded amount according to the new formula. The following message is given when you have received your first Merit Reward: The Formula The formula used by the developers to calculate number of merits to award a task is as followsSynapse on Merit Changes: MedianTime / MPM * TaskModifier * TimesRunModifier * TimeModifier + ArtificialModifiers Decimals in the result are dropped off (ie: the result is rounded down). * MedianTime: The datamined median time to complete the task * MPM: The desired Merits per Minute, currently 3.7 * TaskModifier: 1.5 if the task is a raid, 1.2 if the task is a trial, 1.0 if the task is a Task Force or Strike Force, and 0.4 if the task is a Story Arc * TimesRunModifier: 1.0 if the task has been run enough times for the developers to be comfortable with the datamining, 0.6 otherwise * TimeModifier: A percentage merit bonus equal to the median time divided by 20 (ex: the Synapse TF has a MedianTime of 194 minutes. 194 / 20 = 9.7, rounded up to 10% bonus) * ArtificialModifier: Manually added bonuses or penalties to a given task; from Synapse: Example The Statesman Task Force has a datamined median completion time of 133 minutes. 133 / 3.7 * 1.0 * 1.0 * 1.07 + 0 = 38 merits Rewards Sources The following pages list the rewards for all available Merit Rewards sources: * Hero Merit Rewards -- Task Forces, Trials, and Story Arcs * Villain Merit Rewards -- Strike Forces, Trials, and Story Arcs * Cooperative Merit Rewards -- Cooperative Task Forces, RWZ Story Arcs * Miscellaneous Merit Rewards -- Giant Monsters, Hamidon, Accolades etc. Diminishing Returns Repeating the same Task Force/Strike Force/Trial within 24 hours will lessen the Merit Rewards by this formula: 1 / (# of attempts), rounded down. So, the first time gives the full reward (1/1), the second time gives half (1/2), the third time gives one third (1/3) and so on, to a minimum of one merit. After 24 hours without completing a particular Task Force/etc., the Merit Rewards reset to their default value for that Task Force. (Note that Synapse originally reported that Diminishing Returns was going to halve the reward each time, but that is not what went to the Live servers.) The time between when the merits are awarded is what counts, so a repeated Task Force that is started less than 24 hours from the last one may still be worth the full reward if it takes longer to complete. Each Task Force/etc. has its own separate timer. Completing one will not diminish the returns of others. Completing Story Arcs is not subject to diminishing returns. This includes completing multiple different Story Arcs, and flashing back repeatedly to the same Story Arc. Completing Ouroboros Task/Strike Forces is also not subject to diminishing returns, since they are not true Task or Strike Forces. They follow the Story Arc rules. Rewards Purchases Heroes and villains can visit Merit Vendors to turn in Reward Merits for various items. * Large Inspiration: 1 Merit * Single Origin Enhancement (levels 20-50 only): 8 Merits * Invention Salvage (three "tier" options: Levels 10-25, Levels 26-40, Levels 41-50): ** Random Rare Salvage: 20 Merits ** Random Rare Magic Salvage: 30 Merits ** Random Rare Tech Salvage: 30 Merits * Common Invention Recipe: 12 Merits * Invention Origin Enhancement Sets (select specific recipes): ** Uncommon Enhancement Recipe: 50-75 Merits ** Rare Enhancement Recipe: 125-275 Merits * Taskforce Random Recipe Roll: 20 Merits * Trial Random Recipe Roll: 30 Merits NOTE: Not all recipes can be purchased at vendors; a list of unavailable recipes can be found here. Summed up, basically, what cannot be purchased are: * Very Rare Recipes (aka Purple Sets) * Costume Piece Recipes * Winter's Gift (Travel recipe set, obtained during Winter Event) See Also * Special Salvage * Merit Vendor References External Links * GoogleDocs Rewards and Purchases (Pages 3-4) by DJ_Jules * GoogleDocs All IO Set Recipe Merit Costs ugly but compiled by Robziel * Merit Deminishing return clock Category:Merit Rewards